This is a comprehensive account of the religious dimensions of the UFO/flying saucer experience.
The Gods Have Landed is a comprehensive account of the religious dimension of the UFO/flying saucer experience. It examines the religious meanings attached to UFOs by the larger society as well as specific movements that claim inspiration from “Space Brothers” and other extra-terrestrial sources. It addresses the religious dimension of the phenomenon of alien abductions, particularly the impact of extra-terrestrial life on Christian theology.

Of special interest are the surveys of primary and secondary materials that make this book the indispensible reference on the subject.

UFO Religions is an essential introduction to UFO-based belief throughout the Western world. Composed entirely of readable new articles by leading international scholars, it critically examines some of the most fascinating issues surrounding UFO worship - abduction narratives, UFO-based interpretations of Biblical and other religions, the growth of pseudo-sciences purporting to explain UFOs and extra-terrestrials, and the responses of the core scientific community to such claims. Focusing on contemporary global UFO groups including the Raelian Movement, Heaven’s Gate, Australia’s Ashtar Command network, Unarius and the Ansaaru Allah Community, it combines sociological, psychological and anthropological perspectives to give a clear profile of modern UFO societies, controversies and beliefs.

Aliens Adored is the first full length, in-depth look at the Raelian movement, a fascinating new religion founded in the 1970s by charismatic prophet, Raël. Born in France as Claude Vorilhon, the former race-car driver started the religion after he experienced a visitation from the aliens (the “elohim”) who, in his cosmology, created humans by cloning themselves. The millenarian movement awaits the return of the alien creators, and in the meantime seeks to develop the potential of its adherents through free love, sexual experimentation, opposition to nuclear proliferation and war, and the development of the science of cloning.

Sociologist Susan J. Palmer has studied the Raelian movement for more than a decade, observing meetings and rituals, and enjoying unprecedented access to the group’s leaders as well as to its rank-and-file members. In Aliens Adored she provides a thorough analysis of the movement, focusing on issues of sexuality, millenarianism, and the impact of the scientific worldview on religion and the environment. Palmer traces Raël’s philosophy and the formation of the Raelian subculture. Raël’s radical sexual ethics, his gnostic anthropocentricism, and shallow ecotheology offer us a mirror through which we see how our worldview has been shaped by the forces of globalization, postmodernism, and secular humanism.

[quote author=“CaptPorridge”]Here’s a list of books that I’ve found to be interesting and useful,

Any other recomendations??/

Hi snakechic here….BYW Capt we’ve met briefly at another forum quite some time ago when you visited a anti cult revival site I used to moderate. Anyway…...apart from the book list - there are a number of terrrific internet resources.
This is my favorite.http://www.workingpsychology.com/cult.html Does this link it? anyway type in Cult Influence & Persuasion tatics by Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.http://www.workingpsychology.com

If you want to talk about cults how about adding
the cult of powerlessness…
aka: Alcoholics Anonymous

Is there any other “disease” where you are told you are powerless.
Not sane. (the need to be restored to sanity implys insanity)
and that your connection to God whatever it is or was is not good enuf.
you have to have a spiritual awakening in order to stop drinking.
The ‘right’ kind of AA style awakening.

[quote author=“Surfnsfree”]If you want to talk about cults how about adding
the cult of powerlessness…
aka: Alcoholics Anonymous

Is there any other “disease” where you are told you are powerless.
Not sane. (the need to be restored to sanity implys insanity)
and that your connection to God whatever it is or was is not good enuf.
you have to have a spiritual awakening in order to stop drinking.
The ‘right’ kind of AA style awakening.

AA is pure snake oil. the Big book is full of contradictions. :?

I completely agree!
There’s a very nice web site that I refer to quite a lot. THis guy has done an amazing amount of research. I love it!

Christianity is a bizarro death cult that hs blood drinking and flesh eating as its central ritual (communion) and a device of torture and capital punishment as its symbol (the cross). It fits the cult parameters in the orange papers to a t:

Belief equals truth

The cult members like to think that truth is identical to belief—specifically, identical to their beliefs. They like to imagine that things are true because they believe them to be true.

When you tell such believers some true facts that they don’t like, they often answer, “But what we believe is…” or “But what our church says is…”, as if that somehow changed things.

They like to imagine that their believing that something is true will make it so—

* As if their believing that the world is flat could really make it so.
* As if their imagining that God is a certain way will force God to be that way.
* As if their believing in faith healing will really make it work.
(The converse is, of course, that if you don’t believe in their faith healing, you will make it fail—so you are an evil, harmful, person for not believing and not ‘keeping the faith’.)

Some people want to know the truth, and some people just want to go on a big ego trip and believe in fairy tales. Cult members choose to believe in fairy tales and fantasies—

* They like to imagine that they have magical powers—that their chants, incantations, beliefs, and prayers will really have some physical effect on the world.
* They like to imagine that they are so powerful that their merely believing something will change the world.

* They also like to imagine that their beliefs are very important—
* That it will ruin God’s whole day if they don’t believe what God wants them to believes. (And they are sure that they know what God wants them to believe.)
* Or that the world won’t get saved if they don’t keep the faith.
That’s just a bit grandiose and egotistical.—Which, in turn, reveals why they like to imagine that their beliefs control reality. Their magical fantasy world is just a big fat vain ego trip where they can feel important and powerful.